Remington Asks R51 Pistol Owners To Send Them Back
The company released an announcement that problems had indeed been found and that customers who bought an R51 will be allowed to exchange it for a new one after production resumes.

Remington Asks R51 Pistol Owners To Send Them Back
The company released an announcement that problems had indeed been found and that customers who bought an R51 will be allowed to exchange it for a new one after production resumes.

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What happened? what is the issue? Did Remington learn anything from the Springfield debacle?
I'm not an owner, just interested.

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Earlier this year, we launched the innovative R51 subcompact pistol to critical acclaim. During testing, numerous experts found the pistol to function flawlessly. In fact, they found it to have lower felt recoil, lower muzzle rise and better accuracy and concealability than other products in its class.

However, after initial commercial sales, our loyal customers notified us that R51some R51 pistols had performance issues. We immediately ceased production to re-test the product. While we determined the pistols were safe, certain units did not meet Remington’s performance criteria. The performance problems resulted from complications during our transition from prototype to mass production. These problems have been identified and solutions are being implemented, with an expected production restart in October.

Anyone who purchased an R51 may return it and receive a new R51 pistol, along with two additional magazines and a custom Pelican case, by calling Remington at (800) 243-9700.

The new R51 will be of the same exceptional quality as our test pistols, which performed flawlessly.

it happens occasionally when a product goes from a prototype to being mass produced and there sometimes need to be minor changes made that improve the mass produced version to where it functions as well as the prototype did in testing. this nothing new and many new products experience these growing pains. i think it's great that Remington is taking a very pro-active position in correcting the minor problems.

The problems were identified almost immediately upon introduction in January and a voluntary recall was issued in July. Also in July they announced they were no longer going to manufacture the R51 as the flaws in the design could not be corrected.

For a short time all evidence of the R51 disappeared from their website and has now been replaced with an announcement it will resume production in October. In the meantime, if you have one they will replace it with a new production gun along with a pelican case and a couple of magazines...

Scott Blackwell, President of Sales and Marketing for Remington was one of the early casualties of this fiasco, being fired in March over what many consider his roll in pushing out a faulty product, then trying to cover up and/or ignore its deficiencies. Some speculate his roll in delaying the recall of the the faulty M700 rifles was also a contributing factor.

Keep in mind, the early 'rave reviews' of this pistol were mostly purchased by Remington, and all reviewers received specially hand selected guns for their evaluations.

Having owned and shot a Remington UMC 51, I was surprised when Remington announced they were updating and reintroducing the delayed blowback Pederson design. It seemed unnecessarily complex and outdated to me. Indeed, in it's day the Model 51 was a commercial failure.